### #Weeknotes ### What are #weeknotes ? Weeknotes are a great way for me to reflect on my week. I publish them in public because I believe it’s worth spreading our learnings to others. ### Personal stuff I'm getting better at recapping each day, managing 3 daily notes ([[2025-05-06]], [[2025-05-07]], [[2025-05-08]]) plus this weeknote. I'm finding it clears my head, helping me fall asleep more smoothly at night. These #dailyRamble notes are mostly for me. I keep them shared for accountability and in case they help someone else, you never know. The bank holiday weekend was fun, we; played board games, met up with a friend, ate fish and chips by the sea, and I prepped for the EU Championships event I'm going to this coming weekend. My wife got into playing the new Oblivion remastered game, which of course dragged me into that world too. I hadn't played the original, so I have no background to the game world. The exploration hits the sweet spot of beautiful scenery and stumbling across fun side stories, it's good fun. I had a wonderful catchup call with a friend; his author writing life is treating him well, and I couldn't be happier for him! We talked about writing, planning stories, overcoming writing fears, and he offered some great advice about how to think about where to find my place in the world. My other author friend, [Matt Wesolowski](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Wesolowski_(British_author)), had his book launch event last night! I was thrilled to see him in his element talking about his new horror novella (Don't) Call Mum. Published as part of the [Northern Weird Project](https://www.wildhuntbooks.co.uk/the-northern-weird-project), the story takes us through a train ride through the forgotten places in the North East, the people you meet, and when it unexpectedly stops, something sinister emerging from the darkness outside. It's dead good, 10/10. The two most interesting non-work articles I've read this week: * Imagine if Clippy from the 90's had access to AI, that's what [someone has done here](https://felixrieseberg.github.io/clippy/) * [So much blood](https://dynomight.net/blood/) ; how much blood is shipped out of the US every year? It's much more than I thought! ### Professional stuff hedgehog lab, the company I'm currently working with, had their [[Company All Hands 2025]] - There's a write up of the conference, including a fun Product breakout we had playing with #AI. On top of this, it's been a short yet busy week: - I ran a workshop for a new NHS product; taking folks through a few service design techniques, investigating user flows, and scoping a first version of the service - My big focus this week was the EdTech AI client; we're ~2 weeks away from a private beta, so there's always lots to do to ensure we get it right first time! - When we've been building functionality, we've had one eye on 'how can we make this better for tomorrows use cases too' - It's a little more effort now, but it's starting to pay dividend which is great to see - Talked through our Product strategy for this year In the non-hedgehog world, [dxw](https://www.dxw.com/) published another banger of a blog post - [procurement is still broken](https://www.dxw.com/2025/05/procurement-is-still-broken/). By not pulling any punches they outline the impact of the latest guidance, the current market landscape, and the clear benefits of splitting £40-50M+ contracts into deliverable, accountable, chunks. You can find my other weeknotes here #weeknotes